When you call 911, you report an emergency. What may be difficult to communicate at the time is that your house is hard to find and GPS always directs to the wrong place. You have a non verbal autistic teenager who won’t respond well to strangers. Your pitbull may bark but it just wants to be pet. Or, that there are only four people who live in this house and that fifth person shouldn’t be there. Few of us have ever asked how 911 works, and how it has evolved to meet changing societal needs. Every one of us is sitting on piles of data that can help augment first responder’s efforts and create a safer world.